Hip-hop hopefuls line up outside the Hard Rock

Tony BriscoeTribune reporter

Frigid temperatures didn’t discourage droves of music artists from lining up outdoors Friday morning for the chance compete on a potential hip-hop reality TV show. They stood in a line that stretched for three blocks outside the Hard Rock Hotel at 230 N. Michigan Ave. to audition for a planned new TV series titled “One Shot,” which was billed via a social media campaign as a competition between aspiring hip-hop emcees with the chance to win a $100,000 prize and a record deal at the end of the season.

According to a spokesman for the show, it is still shopping for a network and is hoping to air by the end of 2015.

Plans are to have it hosted by SiriusXM Radio personality Sway and judged by a panel of celebrity judges, including Slaughterhouse rapper Crooked I, DJ King Tech and co-owner of SMH Records Mike Smith. Contestants are being auditioned in eight cities, including Chicago.

Drake Jomaa, 22, and Scott Helppie said they drove from Toledo, Ohio, for an opportunity to perform in front of rappers Twista and Tech N9ne, expected to be the judges for the Chicago tryouts. “That would be the best part of the experience is performing in front of them,” said Jomaa, who shook his bottle of orange juice that was beginning to freeze as he braved single-digit temperatures for more than four hours.

A number of local rappers, including 18-year-old Quverius Clayton, of Humboldt Park, also turned out. Clayton, who goes by the stage name Q, continued to withstand the bitter cold at noon Friday after lining up at 6:30 a.m., he said. He had lyrics he wrote just for the competition. “Some people are going to go in there and freestyle, but I don’t think that’s going to be the most logic thing to do in front of people like this,” said Clayton. “I’m just going to go in there and give it my all.”